George H. Scithers

George H. Scithers (May 14, 1929 – April 19, 2010) was an American science fiction fan, author and editor.

A long-time member of the World Science Fiction Society, he published a fanzine starting in the 1950s, wrote short stories, and moved on to edit several prominent science fiction magazines, as well as a number of anthologies. As editor emeritus of Weird Tales, he lectured at the Library of Congress in 2008. Wildside Press published his most recent book, Cat Tales: Fantastic Feline Fiction, in 2008.

Biography

Career Scithers' first published fiction, the story "Faithful Messenger", appeared in If magazine in 1969. His involvement in the field, however, dates back to 1957, when he began submitting to the fanzine Yandro. Two years later, he began publishing the Hugo Award-winning fanzine Amra. The term swords and sorcery first appeared there, and Amra became a leading proponent of the subgenre. He was a regular parliamentarian for business meetings of the World Science Fiction Society and authored a guide to running science fiction conventions, The Con-Committee Chairman's Guide based on his experiences chairing DisCon 1 in 1963.

In 1973, Scithers founded Owlswick Press, a small independent publishing company. In 1976, Owlswick published Scithers' book (under the pseudonym Karl Würf), To Serve Man: A Cookbook for People (including recipes for "Boiled Leg of Man", "Texas Chili with Cowboy", and "Person Kebabs").

In 1977, he was named the first editor for Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (IASFM). He remained in that position until 1982 and won two more Hugo Awards for his work there. In 1992, he and Schweitzer won a World Fantasy Award for their work on Weird Tales.

In 2001, Scithers was the fan guest of honor at the Worldcon, Millennium Philcon.

At the 2002 World Fantasy Convention in Minneapolis, both Scithers and Forrest J Ackerman won the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Awards. He was also very fond of owls and trains. He resided in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania where Weird Tales was edited in his basement, followed by Rockville, Maryland.

Death Scithers died April 19, 2010, two days after suffering a heart attack.